Fire at Japanese hospital kills 10, injures 8

                  
A fire broke out at a hospital in southern Japan early Friday, killing 10 people, the police and fire department said.               

Fukuoka prefectural police said another eight people were injured in the fire at an orthopedic hospital that apparently started while patients were sleeping. Police said eight of the dead were patients, and the remaining two were hospital staff.                

Several of those injured were in serious condition, said Akiharu Otsu, a Fukuoka city fire department official.  The fire has been extinguished after burning most of the building, Otsu said.               

Police said the fire started from the ground floor of the four-story building, but the cause was still under investigation.                  

There was no sign of initial fire extinguishing effort at the hospital and fire proof doors on the second and third floors that were not properly used, said an unidentified fire department official said in a televised news conference on NHK public television.         


AP